Field Epidemiologist - HPIV - Communicable Disease Branch

This posting is only open to current residents of the State of Colorado

ABOUT CDPHE

Our mission captures this broad portfolio of work: to advance Colorado’s health and protect the places we live, learn, work, and play. Our vision is a healthy and sustainable Colorado where current and future generations can thrive. Achieving the mission and vision takes bold action, talented people, broad partnerships, and a commitment to serving every Coloradan.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

• This is a remote position primarily conducted via telework/work-from-home arrangements. Occasional travel to a State or alternate location may be required based on business needs.
  
  

CDPHE Offers:

CDPHE offers a comprehensive benefits package and the opportunity to build a meaningful career in public service. Benefits include:

• Medical and dental plans.

• Colorado PERA retirement options, including defined benefit plan or defined contribution plan.

• Optional 401(K) and 457 retirement plans.

• Employer-paid life insurance.

• Short- and long-term disability coverage.

• Potential flexible working arrangements

• 11 paid holidays per year and generous paid time off.

• Free parking and access to RTD bus lines.

• Tuition assistance.

• Employee wellness programs.

• Professional development opportunities.

• Career opportunities throughout Colorado state government.

Some positions may qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.

The Work Unit: The Communicable Disease Branch (CDB) monitors, investigates and controls epidemic and communicable diseases affecting the public health in Colorado, as required under Colorado statute including: invasive bacterial diseases; foodborne/enteric diseases; waterborne diseases; respiratory diseases; vaccine preventable diseases; healthcareassociated infections; tuberculosis; and zoonotic/vectorborne diseases

What You Will Do: This position serves as an epidemiological resource and staff authority for local public health agencies and Communicable Disease Branch (CDB) units, as well as for other public health partners (such as schools, hospitals, healthcare providers, health care coalitions (HCCs), animal control officers, veterinarians, etc.) and works with other CDPHE programs within the Division of Environmental Health and Sustainability, Water Quality Control Division, the Air Pollution Control Division, the Office of Emergency Preparedness and Response, and other programs as needed for disease or acute environmental responses. This position possesses a unique technical expertise in epidemiology response and planning and supports local public health agency (LPHA) staff and CDPHE CDB staff in responding onsite and in the field to communicable disease cases, clusters, and outbreaks by providing direction, leadership, and coordination. In providing technical assistance and response support to LPHAs, this position makes decisions and is authorized to take action and issue opinions that provide direction for LPHA public health investigation activities. The position also coordinates with partners in research, development, communication, and execution of epidemiologic aspects of public health preparedness and response efforts and strategies.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provides authoritative technical expertise on epidemiology for LPHAs in assigned region
• Develops and maintains relationships with staff at LPHAs and other partners in those jurisdictions including onsite and in the field
• Provides regular consultative services to local public health agencies, CDB staff and other partners (such as long term care facilities, prisons, and schools) regarding appropriate response and outbreak investigation methods and disease control measures including onsite and in the field
• Investigates individual cases and exposures, by obtaining laboratory results, medical record information, and illness details and exposure histories through case interviews to attempt to confirm the condition and determine the source of exposure
• Investigates clusters and outbreaks of public health importance as the lead investigator, or assists local public health agency staff including onsite and in the field(depending on the type of outbreak, local availability of resources, and location of exposures or affected persons)
• Provides direct technical assistance onsite and in the field for complex or large case, cluster, or outbreak investigations, supporting LPHA response structures as needed.
• Implement and recommend appropriate disease control and prevention measures based on agency protocols, the CDPHE Communicable Disease Manual, CDC guidance, and known best practices including onsite and in the field
• Conducts epidemiologic studies (especially for outbreak investigations), including study and questionnaire design, hypothesis generation, database design, data entry and analysis, and report generation including from the field during response to public health events
• Facilitate sample/specimen collection and laboratory testing for diseases of public health importance statewide
• Conducts and participates in epidemiological assessments statewide (ex: retail food establishments associated with foodborne illness complaints and outbreaks, hantavirus and other zoonotic diseases, lead exposures, etc)
• Write final outbreak reports and summaries for outbreaks
• Be familiar with the Health Alert Network (HAN) system, assisting with development of health alerts as necessary, support LPHA and other partner enrollment and distribution of HANs
• Respond to public health-related incidents across the state when additional epidemiology capacity is needed including onsite and in the field
• During case and outbreak investigations, maintains communication channels, serves as a liaison/point-of contact, and facilitates communication between local public health agencies, other CDPHE divisions and programs (such as the Division of Environmental Health and Sustainability, Laboratory Services Division, Environmental Divisions, and Health Facilities Division), CDC, and other federal partners including in the field during response to public health events
• Provides communicable disease and outbreak guidance, information, education, and training to health care providers, CDPHE colleagues, local public agencies, other public health partners, and the public statewide.
• Brings complex calls or situations to the attention of higher level staff for review or consultation.
• Provides technical authority, expertise and direction to local public health agency communicable disease staff for case and outbreak investigation and response, implementation of disease control measures based on standard guidance and response best practices, and interpreting epidemiological data and support sharing with HCC and community stakeholders including for in person meetings and responses statewide.
• Supports LPHA access to state surveillance systems, databases, and electronic laboratory ordering systems
• Monitor, analyze, and interpret disease surveillance data - recognize/detect clusters and outbreaks in assigned region, including from the field during response to public health events
• Designs surveillance for a public health issue and identify surveillance data needs, including onsite at LPHAs in the assigned region and from the field during public health response statewide
• Assess and attempt to improve timeliness and completeness of communicable disease reporting and investigations
• Assess the need for special analyses of existing disease data
• Communicates epidemiologic information through giving oral presentations or contributing to the development of written documents to nonprofessional audiences statewide
• Annually, completes a surveillance data analysis project for the assigned region in consultation with LPHA staff and program leadership
• Serves as the division- and department-wide recognized subject matter expert and authoritative technical resource for epidemiological aspects of responses and disasters involving environmental health, toxic exposure or communicable disease issues preparedness and planning activities, including surveillance, case and contact investigation, testing and treatment; and mitigation including onsite at response incident command posts and other locations in the field.
• During response to natural or man-made disasters, or events that impact environmental health, serve in a leading response role for epidemiology response teams including participation in division- and branch- level Incident Command System (ICS) structures.
• Serves as an expert in conducting rapid health needs assessments, such as a CASPER, designing and leading field surveys immediately following a disaster to determine the magnitude of the impact and identify the urgent needs of the community including implementation onsite in impacted communities.
• Serve as a subject matter expert on when and how to use syndromic surveillance and other surveillance and reporting systems to respond to natural, man-made, or other environmental disasters, and work with the syndromic surveillance team to establish appropriate activation protocols.
• Assists in establishing surveillance systems in shelters, emergency departments, and field hospitals and medical clinics to monitor for outbreaks of communicable diseases, increases in carbon monoxide poisoning or other post-disaster environmental hazards, injuries or mental health crises. This activity may require work onsite/in the field.
• Supports systematic data collection to distinguish between direct disaster deaths, and indirect deaths to ensure accurate official counts.
• Participate as an epidemiology response subject matter expert in environmental health and disaster epidemiology, attending meetings and participating in drills, exercises, and other activities.
• Serve as a Communicable Disease Branch representative on cross-collaborative workgroups on topics that involve disaster epidemiology and environmental epidemiology response including workgroups related to heat, wildfires, or other work groups that arise in response to toxic exposures, climate change, or other natural or man-made disasters.
• Collaborate with CDPHE Environmental Health Division, Office of Emergency Preparedness and Response, Immunization Branch, Health Facilities, Medical Epidemiology Unit, toxicology staff, other affected programs at CDPHE and other state agencies as well as the CDPHE Epidemiology Response Planning Specialist in preparing for and responding to natural or man-made disasters.
• Maintain expertise in state and federal regulations and guidance regarding preparedness and response for natural and man-made disasters or other events, including disease surveillance methods, case definitions, laboratory requirements, and recommendations for testing and treatment for each potential disease agent, or toxic exposure.
• Coordinate with the toxicology staff and medical epidemiology unit to ensure CDB plans, protocols, and guidance for response to natural and man-made disasters or environmental health events are up to date and accurate, reflecting best practices for epidemiology response to these events.
• Inform the development of branch and division plans for responding to environmental, toxicological, or disaster events, providing epidemiology response expertise.
• Collaborates with agencies at the local, state, and federal level as well as non-governmental organizations to translate complex data into actionable information for emergency managers and policy makers
• Successfully complete required activities, training and recertification through the National Response Framework (NIMS) basic ICS and other supplemental training.
• Actively participate in the CSTE Disaster Epidemiology Subcommittee and the CDC Disaster Epidemiology Community of Practice.

Residency Requirement:

This posting is only open to residents of the State of Colorado at the time of submitting your application.

Class Code & Classification Description:

C7C4XX Health Professional IV

NOTE: An applicant may meet the minimum qualifications for this job in one of two ways: They may qualify through their work experience alone or through a combination of education and work experience.

Seven (7) years of relevant experience in epidemiology or public health response, environmental health, or in an occupation related to the work assigned to this position

Or

A combination of related education in epidemiology, public health response, environmental health and/or relevant experience in epidemiology or public health response, environmental health, or in an occupation related to the work assigned to this position equal to seven (7) years.

**You must substantiate that you meet the minimum qualifications when filling out the Work Experience section of the application. Failure to do so will result in the application not moving forward in the hiring process. “See resume” will not be accepted. Resumes are considered supplemental information and are not considered in the initial evaluation. In addition, part-time work will be prorated when determining whether minimum qualifications are met.**

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

In addition to the minimum requirements, the successful candidate in this position will have the following highly desirable experience and competencies:

• Relevant experience with the State of Colorado.
• Planning for and responding to emergencies with public health implications, including disease outbreaks, and man-made or natural disasters.
• Coordinating activities among public health professionals.
• Knowledge of the local public health agency structure, capacity, and disease control work flow.
• Synthesizing epidemiological data to share with partners.
• Experience with data exchange between disparate information systems.
• Independently and collaboratively work with internal teams and diverse public stakeholders.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT: Must match approved PD

• Residency Requirement Options:

  • This posting is only open to residents of the State of Colorado at the time of submitting your application.

• A pre-employment background check will be conducted as part of the selection process.

• This is a critical position and can be expected to work and/or remain at their worksite in delayed start, early release, or closure situations.

• Critical Status: Must be available in the event of an emergency, (e.g., bio-terrorist attack, chemical attack, disease outbreak or all hazards) and be required to report to work immediately at the regular or alternate location. During this time, travel restrictions may be in place.

• Critical Status: Must be available in the event of the activation of the Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) and be required to report to work immediately at the regular or alternate location. During this time, travel restrictions may be in place.

• TRAVEL: Response to outbreaks, trainings, conferences in and out of state
  
  

As an applicant who has been removed from consideration during the selection or comparative analysis process, you may file an appeal with the State Personnel Board and/or request a review by the State Personnel Director. A standard appeal form is available on the State Personnel Board website, . If you appeal, your appeal must be submitted in writing on the official appeal form, signed by you or your representative, and received at the following address within ten (10) days of your receipt of this notice: Colorado State Personnel Board/State Personnel Director, Attn: Appeals Processing, 1525 Sherman Street, 4th Floor, Denver, CO 80203. Fax: 303-866-5038. Phone: 303-866-3300. Email address: dpa_state.personnelboard@state.co.us. The ten-day deadline and these appeal procedures also apply to all charges of discrimination. Refer to Chapters 4 and 8 of the State Personnel Board Rules and Personnel Director's Administrative Procedures, 4 CCR 801, for information about the appeals process. The State Personnel Board Rules and Personnel Director's Administrative Procedures are available at .

A complete application packet must include:

• Completed State of Colorado application.

• If using education to qualify for this position a copy of your transcripts (unofficial acceptable) or diploma must be provided with application. Transcripts must be attached to your colorado.gov/jobs application.

• If you are a veteran, a copy of your DD214 must be attached to your colorado.gov/jobs application.

The Selection Process:

• All applications that are received by the closing of this announcement will be reviewed against the Minimum Qualifications in this announcement. Candidates who meet the minimum qualifications proceed to the next step.

• Colorado Revised Statutes require that state employees are hired and promoted based on merit and fitness through a comparative analysis process.

Part of, or all of, the comparative analysis for this position may be a structured application review, which involves a review of the information you submit in your application materials by Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) against the preferred qualifications.

• A top group, up to six candidates, will be invited to schedule an interview with the hiring manager.

CDPHE does not provide visa sponsorship at this time. Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States.

E-Verify:

CDPHE uses e-Verify, an Internet-based system, to confirm the eligibility of all newly hired employees to work in the United States. Learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities.

ADAAA Accommodations: